Cross Dressing Mecca

Dubai is evidently a worldwide Mecca for cross dressers. Dubai police have arrested 40 tourists for cross dressing in the malls. They stress that those arrested were tourists and NOT residents. This amount of trans-sexualism seems extreme and raises the question: What is the attraction of Dubai for transvestites?

Perhaps the culture committee should look into it.

Head Count

June was a slow month for the executioner in Saudi. Only three people were beheaded. All of them were convicted for murder. Year to date score is up to 65.

In other news, the fate of the Canadian teenager convicted of murder is still unknown. There is no news about his appeal, which may be a good thing.

Now Hear This, THIS WAS A DRILL!

Gulf News reports that a conversation between two drunk Arabs started the whole Dubai Terror Alert thing.

"A diplomatic source said the warning was issued based on a personal conversation between the two Arab men in the Hemingway bar in the Hiltonia Hotel in Abu Dhabi. The bar is frequented by hundreds of Britons and Americans.

One drunk man told the other in jest: "If someone wants to scare all these people and make them run away, just say there is a bomb. A belt bomb will kill hundreds of them."
The source said it is believed that Britons sitting near the men overheard the conversation and thought it was serious.

They reported the matter to their embassy who immediately issued the terror alert. "

They need to learn that that s**t isn't funny anymore. PE has a couple of observations. One, what about the Muslim prohibition against drinking? The morality police need to find these guys and arrest them. Two, didn't anybody learn anything about faulty intelligence with the whole Iraq thing?

Oh well, I guess its better to safe than sorry - and it did make for an exiting couple of days. And it's always a good idea to have a drill or two before the reall deal. As you were. Carry on.

Advice to Expats in the UAE

I have taken a page from Col. Jeff Cooper's personal defence training and adjusted it to situations you may face in the UAE during the current terrorism alert. Col. Cooper taught four levels of personal awareness: white, yellow, orange and red. These corresponded to increasing levels of alertness culminating in a fight response at the red level. Here are my interpretations of those alertness levels applied to a terrorist attack.

• White: Unaware and unprepared. If attacked in Condition White, the only thing that may save you is the inadequacy or ineptitude of your attacker. When confronted by something nasty, your reaction will probably be "Oh my God! This can't be happening to me."
• Yellow: Relaxed alert. No specific threat situation. You should always be in Yellow whenever you are in unfamiliar surroundings or among people you don't know. You can remain in Yellow for long periods. In Yellow, you are "taking in" surrounding information in a relaxed but alert manner, like a continuous 360 degree radar sweep.
• Orange: Specific alert. Something is not quite right and has gotten your attention. Your radar has picked up a specific alert. You shift your primary focus to determine if there is a threat. You formulate a plan of action.
• Red: Your flight or fight trigger is tripped. You implement your plan.

While these levels were originally developed for an armed response, they are equally applicable for the average citizen in formulating an unarmed response to a situation. Typically, your response will be to evacuate the immediate area. Your planning should include a knowledge of the location of emergency exits and safety equipment (fire alarms, extinguishers).

Enshallah, there will be no problems and driving the SZR will still be the most dangerous thing you do all day.

UK Raises Terror Threat in UAE

The British Foreign Office has raised the alert level for terrorism attack in the UAE to their highest level. There was no indication of the reason for the increase in alert level. No similar notice has been posted by the US Department of State, however the US embassy in Abu Dhabi posted the following on their web site:

As we enter the busy summer travel and holiday season, including plans for 4th of July celebrations around the UAE, Embassy Abu Dhabi and Consulate General Dubai wish to remind American citizens about the general security situation in the Middle East, as outlined below in the current Worldwide Caution. The Embassy and Consulate General wish to advise Americans that potential exists for terrorists to plan and carry out violent actions in the region, including the UAE, and for this reason Americans should maintain a high level of personal security awareness at all times, particularly in public places.

Certainly, the UAE is a target rich environment for terror attacks. It also provides naval support to the US fleet in support of the War on Terror.

Royals Behaving Badly

Sheikh Falah al Nahyan will be in a Geneva court this week on charges that he assaulted an American citizen who refused his homosexual advances. The alleged assault occurred in 2003 and the plaintiff, Silvano Orsi, claims he has been unable to work since then due to injuries he received during the alleged attack. The Sheikh could get two years.

In other news, Issa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan has been accused of torturing an American businessman. The lawsuit, originally filed in 2006, names five members of the royal family and seeks $1 billion in damages. The plaintiff, Bassam Nabulsi (a naturalized American citizen) , has videotapes of the torture sessions. Not surprisingly, he has had problems serving papers on the royals. A US District Court judge has given him until June 30 to serve papers or the case will be dismissed.

These guys are brothers to Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, President of the UAE and Ruler of Abu Dhabi. He can't be happy about the publicity his relatives are getting, especially in light of the recent concern about national identity in the UAE.

Three Real Estate Execs Detained

Three execs from Deyaar have been detained by Dubai police, Arabian Business reports. Deyaar is Dubai's second largest publicly listed developer and a subsidiary of Dubai Islamic Bank. Is there a connection here? And why doesn't this story show up in the Emirate's newspapers?

QE2 - Rescued from the Harem?

The British government is seeking a legal opinion to see if they can block the sale of the QE2 to Dubai's land development company, Istithmar. Lord Inglewood, who chairs a government committee on the export of works of art, is asking for the legal opinion. A group protesting the sale, the QE2 Consortium, argue that the ship and its contents are of "national and historic importance". Cunard Lines sold the ship with its contents intact. The contents includes several works of art. Istithmar, who paid $100 million for her, is going to convert the ship into a luxury floating hotel berthed at the Palm Jumeirah and is under no obligation to preserve the interior of the ship.

British Banker in Custody

Bahrain based banker and UK multi-millionaire Charles Ridley has been detained in Dubai without benefit of legal representation for almost one week, Arabian Business has revealed. Also detained with him is his business associate, Rayan Cornelius. Specific charges are not known but it is assumed his detention is related to certain investment funds. It is believed that Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) may have invested in these funds.

Although the paper has not indicated any relation between the two actions, A former VP of Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), Rifaat Othmani, a Pakistani national, has also been detained for "bribery allegations and receiving kickbacks from clients in return for favours". DIB is the UAEs largest Sharia compliant lender.

Big Mo - Still Watching

A couple was in court the other day accused of that most heinous of crimes, namely "indecently gesturing in public by kissing, hugging and cuddling". They were seen commiting this crime in a car in a mall parking lot by an undercover policeman who then informed the local constabulary.

The accused couple plead not guilty and said the claimant was too far away to see clearly. It was only a kiss on the cheek and not a full fledged lip lock. There was no indication as to the courts decision.

Problems on The Palm

This story from the Guardian describes some of the issues going on with the first residents to move to the Palm Jumeirah. It seems the brochures and hype were a little misleading. Villas crammed together, no air conditioning included in the price and white mans guilt for the laborers who built it all.

Magic Stone Update

The appeal has been heard and a decision handed down.

The government was not able to test the veracity of the gem dealers claims because "because they lacked proper scientific methods or equipment to test whether the onyx stone was bulletproof or to decide its real value. Dubai Police, Dubai Municipality and Dubai Metals and Commodities Centre did not have the necessary equipment to carry out the mission."

I think all they really had to do was call Mythbusters and set them to work. The court reduced the gem dealers sentence from 6 months to 3 months. And deportation, of course. This was probably very close to time served already but his lawyer is not satisfied. He wants a full acquittal.

"We will appeal yesterday's verdict before the Cassation Court... I am seeking my client's innocence and not a reduced term. My client has pleaded not guilty since the beginning," Q.M.'s lawyer Saeed Al Ghailani, of Saeed Al Ghailani Advocates and Legal Consultants, told Gulf News on Monday.

Head Count

Saudi Arabia performed 9 executions in May bringing their year to date total to 62. Most of the executed were convicted murderers.

National Identity

The blog Experiencing the Emirates has a summary of news articles concerning National Identity. Here is the link.

Obviously, this issue is of great concern to someone. IMHO, the actions of the Emirates government are shaping the National Identity. You can't make mega construction projects that require large labor forces a national priority and then complain that expats are diluting the Emirati population. You can't claim to embrace openness to all cultures, open your doors to thousands of foreigners and then complain that Arabic is not being spoken enough or that Muslim values are being diluted. You can't promote an Emirati Identity if the only people tourists interact with are outsiders that you hire because you don't want to do the work.

British Birdman Completes BASE Jump from Burj Dubai

A British man has made a BASE Jump from the Burj Dubai to set a new world record. See the story here. Unfortunately, he now faces a year in jail and a fine of about $1400 for "illegal entry".

Some people will do anything to avoid the Salik tols.

Garbage in Dubai

The National ran an article about waste. Dubai produced 27 million tonnes of waste in 2007. This was from a population of 1.5 million people. If you do the math, the per capita production of waste in Dubai in 2007 was a little over 20 tons per person. The average per capita waste production in the USA is a little less than 1 ton per person.

You can argue that much of this waste is generated by the hotel and tourism industry as well as all the massive construction projects. But you can’t escape the fact the Dubai, for all its glitz and glamour, generates one hell of a lot of trash.

Dubai likes to brag about their “green” buildings. But you cannot escape the fact that living in the desert and building such unlikely venues as indoor ski slopes and mega mega shopping malls, requires a lot of energy and generates a lot of waste.

For the record, I’m not a believer in the Cult of Global Warming and I think Carbon Footprints are load of BS, but even I can see that Dubai needs to do something to clean up its act. If the Sheikh put the effort into waste disposal that he puts into building monuments to hubris, Dubai could become a world leader in recycling and waste disposal.

This could offset the perception that Emiratis are a rich, spoiled, wasteful and lazy people who have no concern for the welfare of those outside their tribe.

UAE National Identity

I've noticed a great deal of discussion in the press lately about a UAE National Identity. What puzzles me is that in all the rhetoric on that topic, I haven't seen anything describing what the UAE wants that identity to be. Two issues always surface: language and expats. Leaders are chagrined that Arabic is not spoken more often and blame the hoards of foreign workers for dilution of the culture. Finally, there has been absolutely no assessment of the current perception of the UAE by the rest of the world and how that differs from the identity the UAE wants to promote.

If you want to take the journey of developing a National Identity, it seems to me that you first have to determine the current status of that Identity and then define what needs to be changed to meet your ideal. That will require that leaders hear some rather unpleasant criticism, something the Arab culture is not good at giving or receiving.

Head Count

Saudi Arabia executed 16 people in April bringing their year to date total to 53. Ten of those executed were convicted for drugs, 4 for murder and 2 for rape.

The case of Mohammud Kohail, the Canadian convicted of murder during a school ground fight is still working through the appeals process amid international political pressure.

Another Dead Canary

SeaBee posts about a real estate project in trouble in Umm Al Quwain (another lesser Emirate). The project cannot get, you guessed it, electrical power, water and sewage. The government claims that providing those services is not their responsibility so Tameer, the developer, is putting the project "on hold". I don't know how it works in the real estate game, but in oilfield construction projects that phrase was the kiss of death that no project manager wanted to hear. I'm sure the investors feel the same way.

Methinks the bubble is looking a little thin right now. People who prepaid for these developments are losing their investment. It won't take long before concern for the stability of Emirates real estate investment is called into question and potential investors will dry up like spit in the Rub' al Khali. It will make the sub-prime crisis look like pocket change.

Big Mo is Watching You - Follow Up

I told you I'd follow up on the two women arrested on the beach for "sleeping like married couples". It seems they got one month jail followed by deportation.

Can't have any of that dangerous cuddling going on can we?